Waveguide formation using CMOS fabrication techniques

ABSTRACT

Conventional approaches to integrating waveguides within standard electronic processes typically involve using a dielectric layer, such as polysilicon, single-crystalline silicon, or silicon nitride, within the in-foundry process or depositing and patterning a dielectric layer in the backend as a post-foundry process. In the present approach, the back-end of the silicon handle is etched away after in-foundry processing to expose voids or trenches defined using standard in-foundry processing (e.g., complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) processing). Depositing dielectric material into a void or trench yields an optical waveguide integrated within the front-end of the wafer. For example, a shallow trench isolation (STI) layer formed in-foundry may serve as a high-resolution patterning waveguide template in a damascene process within the front end of a die or wafer. Filling the trench with a high-index dielectric material yields a waveguide that can guide visible and/or infrared light, depending on the waveguide&#39;s dimensions and refractive index contrast.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a divisional of U.S. application Ser. No.14/520,893, entitled “Waveguide Formation Using CMOS FabricationTechniques” and filed Oct. 22, 2014, which claims the benefit, under 35U.S.C. § 119(e), of U.S. Application No. 61/894,062, entitled “WaveguideFormation Using CMOS Fabrication Techniques” and filed Oct. 22, 2013.Each of these applications is hereby incorporated herein by reference inits entirety.

GOVERNMENT SUPPORT

This invention was made with government support under Contract No.HR0011-11-C-0100 awarded by the Defense Advanced Research ProjectsAgency. The government has certain rights in the invention.

BACKGROUND

Complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) technology refers to bothintegrated circuits and the processes used to make integrated circuits.CMOS processes are generally carried out at CMOS foundries to makeintegrated circuits in silicon wafers or substrates. During a typicalCMOS process, thousands to billions of field-effect transistors andother electronic devices can be formed in a single substrate byselectively etching, doping, and depositing different layers of metal,semiconductor, and dielectric materials on the substrate as well asetching and doping the substrate itself. Once the processing iscomplete, the substrate is then diced into individual chips, which canbe packaged for use in electronic components.

In some cases, the integrated circuits include photonic components inaddition to or instead of electronic components. Unfortunately, however,integrating optical waveguides into silicon substrates using standardCMOS processes has proven difficult for a number of reasons. Forinstance, although silicon transmits near-infrared light, it must besurrounded with a low-index material, such as silica (silicon dioxide)or another dielectric, to act as a waveguide. And silicon absorbsvisible light, making it unsuitable for guiding visible light.

Unfortunately, conventional bulk CMOS manufacturing processes do notinvolve forming a single-crystalline silicon layer clad in a dielectricwith a lower refractive index. To compensate for this lack, others havesuggested depositing and patterning waveguides on top of the existingCMOS process layers instead of making changes to the conventional bulkCMOS manufacturing processes. But depositing and patterning waveguideson top of the existing CMOS process layers involves complicatedprocessing and high resolution lithography on top of the complicated,non-planar film stack of the full electronic manufacturing process.Unfortunately, typical lithography steps in this part of the CMOSprocess are performed via I-line steppers to increase the depth offield, which may significantly reduce the available pattern resolutionfor the waveguide layer. Further, the additional steps required todeposit and pattern the waveguides may be expensive to develop andperform.

Besides the aforementioned fabrication complexity, depositing andpatterning waveguides on top of the existing CMOS process layers alsoyields thick dielectric layers on top of the entire electronic chip.These thick dielectric layers degrade the chip's effective thermalconductance, decreasing its total allowable power dissipation and, as aresult, limiting its maximum operation temperature. Additionally, thechip's power and communications typically pass through these thickdielectric layers, resulting in an undesired increase in the totalinductance of the chip's power network and in the capacitance of thechip's signaling paths.

The dielectric layer can also be deposited underneath a siliconwaveguide layer, e.g., as in silicon-on-insulator (SOI) waveguides. In atypical SOI waveguide, a layer of silicon is formed into a rib on top ofa buried oxide layer (typically silicon dioxide) which in turn is on asilicon substrate. Although SOI rib waveguides are well known, they tendto be relatively expensive compared to conventional bulk CMOS devices;in some cases, an unprocessed SOI wafer can cost as much as a fullyprocessed CMOS wafer. SOI CMOS processing is also available in onlyabout 5% of CMOS foundries. And because silicon absorbs light atwavelengths below about 1100 nm, even SOI rib waveguides are unsuitablefor guiding visible light.

SUMMARY

In view of the foregoing, the inventors have developed processes forintegrating dielectric waveguides into CMOS devices without modifyingthe in-foundry process flow and with minimal post-foundry processing.These processes enable the formation of a variety of photonic platformsin bulk-CMOS devices. Some embodiments of these processes involveetching and/or planarization that results in waveguide geometriesresembling silicon-on-insulator strip and rib waveguides. These photonicplatforms may be used for sensing, chip-to-chip interconnections, and avariety of other Electronic Photonic Integrated Circuit (EPIC) needs. Inaddition, frameworks for designing and simulating exemplary integratedwaveguides can be applied to other process flow waveguide formationcross-section analysis.

Embodiments of the present technology include methods of making at leastone optical waveguide in a silicon substrate having a front side, a backside, and at least one ridge extending from the front side of thesilicon substrate. A dielectric layer of first dielectric material isdeposited on the front side of the silicon substrate over the ridge. Inone example, the method includes a portion of the back side of thesilicon substrate so as to form at least one trench in the dielectriclayer via removal of the ridge. Depositing a waveguide core material,with a refractive index greater than that of the dielectric layer, intothe trench forms a core of the optical waveguide.

Another embodiment includes a semiconductor device comprising a siliconsubstrate, a dielectric layer, and an optical waveguide. The siliconsubstrate has a front side and a back side and defines a recessextending through the silicon substrate from the back side of thesilicon substrate to the front side of the silicon substrate. Thedielectric layer comprises first dielectric material, having a firstrefractive index, disposed on the front side of the silicon substrate.The dielectric layer also defines a trench open to the recess defined bythe silicon substrate. And the optical waveguide comprises a seconddielectric material, having a second refractive index greater than thefirst refractive index, disposed within the trench.

Yet another embodiment includes a method of making at least one opticalwaveguide in a silicon substrate having a front side, a back side, and afirst refractive index. Etching the front side of the silicon substratedefines a silicon ridge (e.g., with a width of 250 nm or less) on thefront side of the silicon substrate. Next, a layer of dielectricmaterial having a second refractive index lower than the firstrefractive index is deposited on the silicon ridge and on at least aportion of the front side of the silicon substrate adjacent to theridge. Etching a portion of the back side of the silicon substrateexposes a portion of the silicon ridge through the silicon substratefrom the back side of the silicon substrate to form a waveguide.

In some cases, the back side of the silicon substrate is etched bychemical-mechanical polishing. In other cases, a pn junction is definedin the silicon ridge, then the the back side of the silicon substrate iselectro-chemically etched to the pn junction.

Another embodiment comprises a semiconductor device with a siliconsubstrate, a dielectric layer, and an optical waveguide. The siliconsubstrate has a front side, a back side, and a first refractive index,and defines a recess extending through the silicon substrate from theback side of the silicon substrate to the front side of the siliconsubstrate. The dielectric layer is made of first dielectric material,having a second refractive index lower than the first refractive index,disposed on the front side of the silicon substrate. The dielectriclayer defines a trench (e.g., with a width of about 250 nm or less) opento the recess defined by the silicon substrate. And the opticalwaveguide comprises silicon disposed within the trench to form awaveguide core. In some example, a pn junction is formed in the silicondisposed within the trench.

It should be appreciated that all combinations of the foregoing conceptsand additional concepts discussed in greater detail below (provided suchconcepts are not mutually inconsistent) are contemplated as being partof the inventive subject matter disclosed herein. In particular, allcombinations of claimed subject matter appearing at the end of thisdisclosure are contemplated as being part of the inventive subjectmatter disclosed herein. It should also be appreciated that terminologyexplicitly employed herein that also may appear in any disclosureincorporated by reference should be accorded a meaning most consistentwith the particular concepts disclosed herein.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The skilled artisan will understand that the drawings primarily are forillustrative purposes and are not intended to limit the scope of theinventive subject matter described herein. The drawings are notnecessarily to scale; in some instances, various aspects of theinventive subject matter disclosed herein may be shown exaggerated orenlarged in the drawings to facilitate an understanding of differentfeatures. In the drawings, like reference characters generally refer tolike features (e.g., functionally similar and/or structurally similarelements).

FIG. 1A shows across section of bulk CMOS electronics.

FIG. 1B shows a cross section of thin silicon-on-insulator (SOI)complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) electronics.

FIG. 2A shows a cross section of bulk CMOS electronics suitablewaveguide formation via back-end processing.

FIG. 2B shows a cross section of the bulk CMOS electronics of FIG. 2Aafter localized XeF₂ release of a portion of the silicon substrate.

FIG. 2C shows a cross section of the bulk CMOS electronics of FIG. 2Bafter initial nitride deposition in the recess formed by etching thesilicon substrate.

FIG. 2D shows a cross section of the bulk CMOS electronics of FIG. 2Cafter final nitride deposition in the recess.

FIG. 2E shows a cross section of the bulk CMOS electronics of FIG. 2Dafter optional etching of the nitride deposited in the recess.

FIG. 2F shows a cross section of the bulk CMOS electronics of FIG. 2Eafter optional deposition of a lower cladding layer etching of thenitride deposition.

FIGS. 2G and 2H show a cross section of a bulk CMOS device fabricatedaccording to methods illustrated in FIGS. 2A-2F with electrical contactsto apply electrical signals to a waveguide structure in the device.

FIG. 2I shows a top view of the bulk CMOS device shown in FIG. 2H.

FIGS. 3A-3E illustrate various processes for selectively etching theback of a silicon wafer between electronics regions formed in thesilicon wafer to form a recess in the silicon wafer and trenches in adielectric layer on the silicon wafer.

FIG. 4A shows a cross section of a starting oxide substrate for CMOSshallow trench isolation (STI).

FIG. 4B shows a cross section of “etchless” waveguides formed in theoxide substrate shown in FIG. 4A.

FIG. 4C shows a cross section of partially etched waveguides formed byetching the waveguide layer shown in FIG. 4B.

FIG. 4D shows the cross section of fully etched waveguides formed byetching the waveguide layer shown in FIGS. 4B and 4C.

FIG. 4E shows a cross section of an overguide waveguide core layer forquasi-planarization.

FIG. 4F shows a cross section of a waveguide structure fabricated usingthe overgrowth for quasi-planarization shown in FIG. 4E.

FIG. 4G shows a cross section of a waveguide structure undergoing atwo-step planarization using a sacrificial layer and a waveguide corelayer.

FIG. 4H shows a cross section of a waveguide structure fabricated usingthe two-step planarization shown in FIG. 4G.

FIG. 5A is a plot of the simulated profile of a waveguide mode at awavelength of 600 nm in an exemplary integrated optical waveguide.

FIG. 5B is a plot of the simulated profile of a waveguide mode at awavelength of 850 nm in the exemplary integrated optical waveguide ofFIG. 5A.

FIG. 6A shows a grating coupler that can be used to couple light intoand out of a chip including a waveguide fabricated using methodsillustrated in FIG. 2A-2G.

FIG. 6B shows a semiconductor device including a ring resonator and awaveguide fabricated using methods illustrated in FIG. 2A-2G.

FIG. 6C shows a directional coupler including a pair of waveguides thatcan be used to combine or divide light between different ports.

FIG. 6D shows a semiconductor device including a Mach-Zehnderinterferometer and a waveguide fabricated using methods illustrated inFIG. 2A-2G.

FIG. 6E shows a scanning electron micrograph (SEM) image of a samplegrating device, like those shown in FIGS. 6A, 6B, and 6D, fabricatedaccording the method shown in FIGS. 2A-2G.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Embodiments of the present technology include methods of forming anoptical waveguide in a silicon substrate using a standard CMOS processflow without modifying the in-foundry portion of the CMOS process flow.In one example, the silicon substrate undergoes a conventional CMOSprocess in a CMOS foundry, including formation of any transistors orother electronic devices as well as the deposition of a layer ofdielectric material (also known as a shallow trench isolation layer) onthe front of the silicon wafer to prevent current from leaking betweenadjacent transistors. After in-foundry processing is complete, thesilicon substrate is etched from the back to expose part of thedielectric layer deposited on the front of the silicon substrate. Inother words, post-foundry processing involves etching a recess or holeall the way through the back of the silicon substrate. A narrow trench(e.g., with a width of 500 nm, 300 nm, 130 nm, or less) is formed in thesurface of the dielectric layer exposed by etching away the siliconsubstrate. And an optical waveguide is formed by depositing a waveguidecore material with a refractive index higher than that of the dielectriclayer into the trench. The waveguide width (lateral thickness) istypically from 300 nm to a few microns (e.g., 300-500 nm for single-modedevices). In some cases, the waveguide width may be tapered to less than100 nm. If desired, the waveguide core material can be patterned or cladin another material to further enhance confinement of the guidedmode(s).

CMOS process technologies suitable for waveguide integration may involvehigh-precision (e.g., with feature sizes smaller than about 250 nm)photolithographic patterning of the active layer (inverse of theshallow-trench isolation regions), etching shallow-trench isolationsidewalls with high aspect ratios (e.g., steeper than 45°) anddepositing reasonably thick shallow-trench isolation layers (e.g., withthicknesses of greater than or equal to about 200 nm). In some cases,waveguide integration may include locally blocking the silicidation ofthe active silicon, although this may be avoided through additionaletching. These process constraints are generally found in bulk-CMOSlogic processes having a feature size of 130 nm or below. Other CMOSprocesses, such as those used for 250 nm CMOS technology, often utilizelocal oxidation techniques to form the shallow-trench isolation whichmay result in unsuitably shallow sidewall angles. Additionally, 250 nmCMOS processes may not involve patterning suitable for photonic deviceintegration.

Because the present methods involve post-foundry formation of thewaveguide, they can be used without modifying the in-foundry portion ofthe CMOS process flow. More specifically, the technology disclosedherein does not require any in-foundry process changes and utilizes anexisting high-resolution patterning step used for transistor definitionto define the waveguide's path. In fact, a design for an exemplaryphotonic/electronic integrated circuit may be prepared in a databaseformat specified by the foundry according to the foundry's particulardesign rules, including any non-waivable rules. And in some cases,aspects of an exemplary process may mirror the flow for using the activesilicon layer (e.g., a floating transistor body) of asilicon-on-insulator CMOS process.

In certain examples of the present fabrication processes, thepost-foundry process steps involve, at most, a single coarsephotolithography step to define the recess. And the deposition,planarization, and etching can be carried out using well-establishedtechnologies that require minimal development or recurring costs. As aresult, the present methods are compatible with the conventional CMOSprocesses used at least 95% of present CMOS foundries.

In addition, integrating the waveguide in the front end allows thephotonics to easily couple to and be controlled by other electronic andphotonic devices fabricated in the silicon transistor device plane usingthe standard CMOS process flow. For example, the waveguide(s) can bedisposed in plane with the transistor body layer in the device front endas explained below. And since the waveguide is integrated within thefront-end of the process, in the same plane as the electronics, it doesnot negatively affect the thermal or electrical properties of theelectronics. Conversely, previous post-foundry backend integratedwaveguides are typically physically distant (e.g., 5-10 μm) from thedevice front end in dielectric layers that increase the deviceinductance and capacitance and reduce heat dissipation.

Because an exemplary waveguide can be fabricated in the same plane asthe silicon transistors, it can be positioned closer tosingle-crystalline silicon photodetectors or polycrystalline heatersformed in the device front end for use in the photonic platform. Forexample, the waveguide may be made of a material that transmit light atwavelengths normally absorbed by silicon (e.g., visible wavelengths) andbutt-coupled to a high-efficiency silicon photodetector formed bysource/drain and well doping implants in the transistor device plane.

Moreover, an exemplary waveguide can include a core made of any suitablematerial, including materials that are at least partially transparent atwavelength(s) absorbed by silicon. By choosing an appropriate corematerial, such as silicon nitride, silicon-rich silicon nitride,titanium oxide, tantalum oxide, zinc oxide, or aluminum oxide, thewaveguide can be used to transmit light at one or more wavelengthsbetween from about 400 nm to about 2000 nm—a region of theelectromagnetic spectrum where silicon absorbs light. For instance,amorphous silicon, silicon nitride, silicon, and germanium could be usedas the cores of infrared waveguides. And silicon nitride, aluminumoxide, aluminum nitride, silicon carbide, and zinc oxide could be usedas cores of waveguides that guide visible or infrared light. Thesematerials may be deposited by, for example, plasma enhanced chemicalvapor deposition, sputtering, electron beam evaporation, atomic layerdeposition, or other methods known in the art. Furthermore, polymers canalso be included as the core waveguide material. Possible polymermaterials can include photolime gel-based polymer, Ethylene glycoldimethylacrylate (EGDMA), poly(p-phenylene benzobisthiazole) (PBZT),dye-doped Poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA), polyphenylsilsesquioxanes(PPSQ), Perfluorocyclobutyl (PFCB), Benzocyclobutene (BCB),Polysiloxane, Chloro-fluorinated polyimides, acrylate monomers,epoxidized natural rubber (ENR), or other materials known in the art. Ingeneral, suitable polymers have an index that is slightly higher thansilicon dioxide (e.g., n≈1.55-1.8) and/or have a high second- orthird-order optical nonlinearity. The corresponding fabrication methodcan be, for example, spray coating, or spin coating followed by anetch-back step using oxygen plasma.

Applications of CMOS-Based Waveguide Formation

Examples of the waveguides and waveguide fabrication processes disclosedherein can be used in a wide variety of applications. For communicationtransceivers, simple low-loss photonic integration within bulk CMOSwafers opens up the approximately 92% of the manufacturinginfrastructure that is incompatible with other techniques forhigh-performance photonic integration due to the lack of suitablesingle-crystalline silicon layer. This makes the waveguide integrationin CMOS wafer backends a suitable choice for electronic-photonicapplication specific integrated circuits (ASICs) as well. For example,in electronic-photonic integrated circuits that operate at wavelengthswhere silicon is transparent (e.g., in the mid-infrared portion of theelectromagnetic spectrum), an integrated nitride waveguide can becoupled to a high-performance integrated silicon photodetector.

Electronic-photonic integrated circuits with integrated waveguides mayalso be useful in integrated quantum optics, quantum computing, quantumcommunications, and quantum simulation. Leveraging existing CMOSprocessing techniques to provide optical, thermal, and electro-magneticcomponents in a single chip with on-board control and feedback circuitrycould lead to a major increase in the number of interacting qubits forquantum computation, communication and simulation systems. For instance,integrated optical waveguides could be used in an integrated-photonicatom trap on a CMOS substrate that operates at visible wavelengths.

Photonic integrated circuits with integrated waveguides can also be usedfor integrated photonic biosensing, which is an active area of academicand commercial research and development. An exemplary biophotonicintegrated circuit can be used to sense absorption spectra (and/orchanges in absorption spectra associated with bodily functions (e.g., asin pulse oximetry) or to deliver optical stimulation to particularportions of the body (e.g., as in optogenetics). It could also be usedto stimulate and/or sense fluorescent emissions from naturally occurringfluorophores and from fluorescent markers. For instance, the waveguide'ssurface may be coated, textured, or otherwise treated to attractfluorescent markers that can be stimulated or detected via theevanescent tail extending from the mode(s) guided by the waveguide. Incertain cases, visible or infrared light may couple into and out of thewaveguide evanescently as well. An additional application includesexcitation and collection of inelastic (for example Raman) scatteredlight.

Conventional CMOS and SOI CMOI Integrated Circuits

FIG. 1A shows the cross-section of a generic bulk CMOS technology die100 as used in standard electronic circuits. The CMOS technology die 100is based on a silicon substrate 110, which has been etched and doped toform a series of electronic devices 140. For example, the substrate 110may be selectively doped with phosphorous or another suitable acceptordopant to form n⁺-doped silicon regions 114 and with boron or anothersuitable dopant to form p⁺-doped silicon regions 116. As well understoodby those of skill in the art, the n⁺doped silicon regions 114 andp⁺-doped silicon regions 116 may be arranged with intrinsic siliconregions 112 to form the electronic devices 140, which may includefield-effect transistors, diodes, photodiodes, and other components inthe silicon substrate 100.

A layer of oxide 120 or other suitable dielectric material is depositedonto the etched and doped silicon substrate 110 to isolate theelectronic devices 140 from each other. The oxide layer 120 preventscurrent from flowing between adjacent electronic devices 140. Metal 130is selectively deposited into voids in the oxide layer 120 to provideelectrical connections (contacts) for controlling the electronic devices140. Unfortunately, the close proximity of metal 130 eliminates suitablepoints for photonic device fabrication, even by post-process means, fromthe front-end of the CMOS device 100.

FIG. 1B shows a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) die 102 that also includes asilicon substrate 110 and several electronic devices 140. Unlike thestandard CMOS die 100 shown in FIG. 1A, however, the SOI die 102 alsoincludes a buried oxide (e.g., SiO₂) layer 150 between the silicontransistors 140 and the silicon substrate 110. Although this buriedoxide layer 150 can be used as the cladding for a silicon ridgewaveguide (not shown), it also makes the SOI die 102 incompatible withthe processes used at about 95% of CMOS foundries worldwide.

Fabricating an Integrated Waveguide in a CMOS Process

FIGS. 2A-2E illustrate a process for integrating an optical waveguideinto a CMOS integrated circuit using conventional in-foundry processesand minimal post-foundry processing. Advantageously, this process doesnot require the addition, subtraction, or significant modification ofany of the steps used in the in-foundry portion of the CMOS process. Asa result, embodiments of this process can be used with the bulk CMOSprocess available as a multi-project wafer (MPW) service from IBM,Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., United MicroelectronicsCorporation, ON Semiconductor, ST Micro, and other semiconductorfoundries. Embodiments can be used for any suitable electronicsmanufacturing process, including but not limited to dynamic randomaccess memory (DRAM), flash, bipolar, and BiCMOS processes. They canalso be used in dedicated wafer processes through either a custommanufacturing line or dedicated foundry service.

FIG. 2A shows the cross section of a bulk CMOS die 200 designed andfabricated to support integrated front-end optical waveguides afterin-foundry processing and before post-processing. Like the bulk CMOS die100 shown in FIG. 1A, it includes electronic devices 240 a and 240 b(e.g., transistors, diodes, photodiodes, etc.; collectively, electronicdevices 140) formed in the front side 213 of a silicon substrate 210with intrinsic silicon 212 regions, n⁺-doped silicon regions 214, andp⁺-doped silicon regions 216 formed by selectively etching and dopingthe silicon substrate 210. (The silicon substrate 210 also defines anuncoated back side 211.) Metal 230 forms electrical contacts through adielectric layer 220, or shallow trench oxide layer, that isolatesadjacent electronic devices 240 from each other.

The bulk CMOS die 200 also includes a pair of silicon ridges 262 a and262 b (collectively, trench regions 262) formed in a diffusion region260 between the electronic devices 240 a and 240 b. These ridges 262define the paths of the optical waveguides to be integrated into the die200. In general, the ridges' width(s), heights, and general pattern canbe laid out for the desired final deposited waveguide optical designusing standard tools and techniques. For instance, the ridges 262 can bepatterned using 130 nm (or finer) CMOS processes to define waveguideswhose widths and aspect ratios mimic the ridges' widths and aspectratios. The ridges' widths may range from about 100 nm to about 300 nmand the ridges' heights may be about 50 nm to about 1 μm (e.g., about200 nm to about 400 nm); they may also be even smaller, e.g., forsub-wavelength metamaterial patterns. The ridges 262 may be buffered orisolated from the electronic devices 240 to prevent post-processing inthe photonic integration region (the diffusion region 260 and adjacentportions of the dielectric layer 220) from adversely affecting theelectronic devices 240.

The silicon ridges 262 extend into an uninterrupted region of theshallow trench oxide layer 220, which is formed within what becomes theevanscent field region of the optical waveguides. The shallow trenchoxide layer 220 can be formed using standard CMOS standard techniques,such as including an active silicon fill block layer or excluding otheractive silicon regions. In some cases, the shallow trench oxide layer220 may be about 2-3 μm thick; the exact thickness may be determined bythe waveguide's desired optical properties. The shallow trench oxidelayer 220 may include silicon dioxide, nitrides, or any other suitableoxide with a refractive index lower than that of the waveguide core(e.g., less than 2.2, less than 1.6, etc.).

For CMOS processes including a silicidation step, the silicidationsub-process may optionally be blocked over the active silicon regions(the diffusion ridge 262 b that defines the waveguide region) in theCMOS die 200. In addition, little to no metal 230 is deposited on orabove or the ridges 262 or the rest of the diffusion region 260 (thefuture mode field region(s) for the waveguides) to reduce extrinsicpropagation loss.

If desired, control elements, such as polysilicon heaters and metalfield electrodes, can also be included and positioned relative to theridges 262, the diffusion region 210, and the electronic devices 140.For instance, FIG. 2A shows a polysilicon strip 250 deposited betweenthe lefthand silicon ridge 262 a and a nitride layer 252, which acts asa silicide block. The silicide block can be implemented as somethingother than a nitride layer in the CMOS process. And if the polysiliconstrip 250 is formed for use as a heater, then it can be optionallysilicided as well.

The polysilicon strip 250 may affect the transverse profile of themode(s) guided by the optical waveguide, e.g., via evanescent couplingof the guided mode(s) from the optical waveguide. The polysilicon strip250 can be used to heat the waveguide core so as to shift the waveguidecore's refractive index. (The heater could also be made in the metallayers 230.) Polysilicon heater leads (not shown) can be connected tothe polysilicon strip 250 through in-foundry process metallization asshown for the FET devices 140 in FIG. 1A. As readily understood by thoseof skill in the art, a thermally induced refractive index shift can beused for phase modulation, interferometric intensity modulation, andswitching of the guided optical beam(s). The polysilicon strip 250 (orelectrodes formed of metal 230 using in-foundry processes) can also beused as field electrodes to apply an electric field to anelectro-optically active waveguide core so as to electro-optically shiftthe waveguide core's refractive index.

FIG. 2B illustrates the bulk CMOS die 200 after the firstpost-processing step in the fabrication process. In this case, thesilicon diffusion region 260 and silicon ridges 262 have been etchedaway to form a recess 270 in the silicon substrate 210. As explained ingreater detail below, after the in-foundry processing is complete, thesilicon substrate 210 is etched from the back side 211 to form therecess 270, which extends through the silicon substrate 210 to the frontside 213, exposing the surface of a portion of the dielectric layer 220.This etching step also transforms the silicon ridges 262 into trenches272 a and 272 b (collectively, trenches 272) whose aspect ratios anddimensions conform to the shapes and dimensions of the silicon ridges262 as discussed above. In this case, the left-hand trench 272 a definesthe cross section of a hybrid post-process nitride and in-processpolysilicon waveguide. And the right-hand trench 272 b defines the crosssection of a nitride-only post-process waveguide.

The pattern resolution and front-side alignment accuracy of this stepsilicon etching may be relatively coarse so as not to present afabrication burden. And because these trenches 272 define the shapes andsizes of the optical waveguides, there is no need to etch anyhigh-resolution features in post-processing—the waveguides have beendefined using high-resolution, in-foundry processes that form thesilicon ridges 262.

Next, a waveguide core material 280, such as a dielectric with arefractive index higher than that of the dielectric layer 220, isdeposited within the recess 270, as shown in FIGS. 2C and 2D. Thiswaveguide core material 280 forms a layer of uniform thickness thatfills the trenches 272 and covers some or all of the exposed surface(s)of the silicon substrate 210 and the dielectric layer 220 defining therecess's boundaries. (FIG. 2C shows the waveguide core material 280layer at an intermediate stage of deposition; FIG. 2D shows the layer atits final thickness.) Suitable waveguide core materials 280 include butare not limited to amorphous silicon, silicon nitride, silicon-richsilicon nitride, aluminum oxide, polycrystalline silicon, amorphoussilicon germanium, polycrystalline silicon germanium, amorphous siliconcarbide, polycrystalline silicon carbide, and silicon oxynitride.

In some cases, a cladding material or other layer may be deposited inthe trenches 272 before deposition of the waveguide core material 280,with the waveguide core material 280 deposited on the cladding material.For instance, a low-index cladding may be deposited on a high-indexdielectric layer 220 to support a mid-index waveguide core material 280(i.e., a waveguide core material whose refractive index is lower thanthat of the dielectric layer 220). Alternatively, or in addition, layersof different waveguide core materials may be deposited sequentially toform a graded-index core (a core whose refractive index profile varieswith height) or a prismatic element that refracts or reflects light outof the trench. If the layers are fine enough (e.g., less than a fractionof an optical wavelength), then this layering could be used to form areflector, transmission filter, or other similar element.

The waveguide core material 280 deposited in the trenches 272 a and 272b forms integrated optical waveguides 282 a and 282 b (collectively,waveguides 282), respectively, each of which has a respective core 284a, 284 b (collectively, cores 284). In operation, these waveguides 282guide light propragating orthogonally to the cross-sectional plane shownin FIG. 2D. As readily understood by those of skill in the art, theexact wavelength range, loss, dispersion, and number of modes guided byeach waveguide 282 depends on the waveguide core material 280, therefractive index difference between the waveguide core material 280 andthe dielectric layer 220 and the size and shape of the waveguide's crosssection. For instance, the waveguide core material 280 may betransparent at visible wavelengths and therefore suitable for guidingvisible light. It could also be transparent at infrared wavelengths andtherefore suitable for guiding infrared light. Similarly, thickerwaveguides or waveguides with larger refractive index contrasts mayguide more modes than thinner waveguides or waveguides with smallerrefractive index contrasts. The exact thickness and composition of thewaveguide core material 280 may be selected based on the desiredapplication.

If desired, excess waveguide core material 280 may be removed from therecess's surfaces, leaving waveguide core material 280 deposited mainlyin the trenches 272 as shown in FIG. 2E. For example, the waveguide corematerial 280 can be etched back without a mask. Removing any excesswaveguide core material 280 is an optional step; the waveguides 282 mayfunction with or without waveguide core material 280 extending beyondthe trenches 272 and over the exposed portion(s) of the dielectric layer220. But removing excess waveguide core material 280 changes eachwaveguide's shape to more closely match the shape of the correspondingtrench 272.

Removing excess waveguide core material also exposes surfaces 286 a and286 b (collectively, surfaces 286) of the waveguide cores 284 a and 284b, respectively. In operation, these exposed surfaces 286 can be used toevanescently couple light into or out of the waveguide cores 284. Theycan also be used for sensing: for example, a particle on or close to aparticular waveguide surface 286 may absorb some or all of theevanescent tail extending from the corresponding waveguide core 284,leading to a change in the spectral intensity distribution of theoptical wave propagating through the waveguide core 284. If desired, theexposed surfaces 286 may be coated, textured, or patterned to promoteinteraction with certain types of molecules for biological and chemicalsensing.

The waveguide cores 284 can also be coated with a cladding layer 290,such as a layer of silicon dioxide or another suitable dielectric asshown in FIG. 2F. (Circles indicate the cross sections of the completedwaveguides 284.) The cladding layer 290 has a refractive index that islower than that of the waveguide core material 280 to confine lightwithin the waveguide cores 284 as readily understood by those of skillin the art. In some cases, the cladding layer 290 covers the exposedsurfaces of the waveguide cores 284 as well as adjacent exposed portionsof the dielectric layer 220.

In other cases, the waveguide core material 280 is not etched at all,and the cladding layer 290 is deposited directly on the waveguide corematerial 280. For instance, the cladding layer 290 may serve primarilyto protect the waveguide core material 280 rather to confine lightwithin the waveguide cores 284. In other cases, the cladding layer 290may act as a reactive layer for biophotonic or chemical sensing asdiscussed above. For instance, the cladding layer 290 could comprise aliquid solution that includes an analyte.

FIGS. 2G and 2H show cross sections of a bulk CMOS device 200 fabricatedaccording to methods illustrated in FIGS. 2A-2F. The device 200 has apair of electrical contacts 232 a and 232 b (collectively referred to aselectrical contacts 232) to apply electrical signals to the opticalwaveguide 282 b and possibly associated devices such as a grating, aresonator, or a photonic crystals, among others. The metal contacts 232can be the metal layers used in integrated circuit (IC) processes (e.g.,CMOS, Bi-CMOS, etc.), in which metal layers are used to contactintegrated electronic components (e.g., transistors or resistors). Thesemetal layers, for example, can be the contacts to the source, drain, andgate in a CMOS process or poly resistors. The electrical contacts 232can be disposed above the top of the optical waveguide 282 b (as shownin FIG. 2G) or away from the optical waveguide 282 b (as shown in FIG.2H) depending on the specific application. For example, in applicationswhere an electrical field is desired, the electrical contacts can bedisposed away from the waveguide to reduce optical losses in thecontacts 232. The electrical contacts 232 can be either in directcontact with the core material 284 b, slightly away from the corematerial 284 b (e.g., in contact with the dielectric layer 220), orboth.

FIG. 2I shows a top view of the bulk CMOS device 200 shown in FIG. 2H,illustrating that the optical waveguide 282 a defines an optical pathbetween the electronic devices 240 a and 240 b.

In operation, the electrical contacts 232 can apply several types ofelectrical signals to adjust the performance of the device 200. In oneexample, the electrical contacts can apply a voltage and/or anelectrical field to the core material 284 b, inducing an electro-opticeffect, also referred to as Pockel's effect. The electro-optic effectcan change the refractive index of the core materials 284 b, andaccordingly tune the propagation of light in the optical waveguide. Inanother example, the electrical contacts can apply a voltage and changethe charge density in the volume or on the surface of the core material284 b, which can also tune the refractive index and light propagation inthe waveguide. In another example, the electrical contacts 232 can drivean electrical current through the optical waveguide 282 b, which mayhave an active core material 284 b. The electrical current can pump theactive core material 284 b to stimulate light emission and induce lasingaction. In another example, the electrical contacts 232 can drive anelectrical current for Joule heating and induce a thermo-optic effectthat can adjust the refractive index in the optical waveguide 282 b. Inanother example, the electrical contacts can include one or moreelectrical heaters (e.g., via Ohmic heating) to induce the thermo-opticeffect by, for example, heating the core material 284 b, the dielectriclayer 220, or both.

In some cases, one or more pn junction can be defined in the siliconridge 262. The pn junctions can be fabricated by, for example, acombination of lithography and ion implantation on the back side of thesubstrate 210. For instance, the pn junctions can be defined in the CMOSprocess using the well implants available for a boutique of transistorsin any technology node. The lithography can define the geometry of thepn junction (e.g., location, shape, dimensions of the junction regions),and the ion implantation can introduce the dopants into thesemiconductor materials with desired concentrations.

Selectively Removing Silicon from the Back of a CMOS Substrate

FIGS. 3A-3E illustrate different processes for selectively etching theback of a CMOS platform to form a recess, e.g., as shown in FIG. 2B.FIG. 3A shows the cross section of a CMOS die 300 after in-foundryprocessing. Like the CMOS platfrom 200 shown in FIGS. 2A-2F, the CMOSdie 300 in FIG. 3A includes a silicon substrate 310 that defines a frontside 313 coated with a dielectric layer 320 and an uncoated back side311 opposite the front side 313. The dielectric layer 320 is subdividedinto a photonics region 322, which will define trenches for integratedoptical waveguides once etching is complete, bordered by a pair ofexclusion or “keep-out” regions 324 a and 324 b (collectively, exclusionregions 324). Each exclusion region 324 a, 324 b isolates the photonicsregion 322 from a corresponding electronics region 340 a, 340 b(collectively, electronics regions 340), which may contain one or moretransistors, photodiodes, or other electronic devices or components.

Optionally, the back side 311 of the silicon substrate 310 may beetched, polished, or lapped before being etched to form the recess andtrenches. For example, the back side 311 may be etched to remove furnacedepositions resulting from in-foundry deposition steps. In addition,some silicon substrates—including many of those used for electronicsmanufacturing—are not polished on both sides. If the back side 311 has arough surface, the surface roughness may complicate the patterning andother process steps required for waveguide formation. Polishing alsoremoves any unwanted dieletric layers from the silicon substrate's backside 311 as well. Lapping the back side 311 removes unwanted dielectriclayers, reduces surface roughness, and thins the silicon substrate 310itself, which in turn reduces the amount of etching required to exposethe shallow trench isolation layer (dielectric layer 320) through theback side 311.

FIG. 3A also shows a resist or hard mask 350 that covers certainportions of the silicon substrate's back side 313. This mask 350 definesa coarse pattern for the optical waveguides being formed in the CMOS die300 and protects the electronics regions 340 from the processingperformed for waveguide integration. The mask 350 and patterning are notrequired if the design is purely photonic and there aren't anytransistors to be protected. The mask 350 and patterning can also beomitted if etch selectivity is utilized in the following processing,such as by employing electrochemical etches to stop on specific dopinglayers or metallurgical junctions. Otherwise, standard photolithographycan be used to pattern the back side 311 of the silicon substrate 310.

As readily understood by those of skill in the art, the back-sidepattern can be aligned to features (e.g., transistors) on the front side313 of the silicon substrate 310 using a back-side aligner (not shown)or other fiducial mark. Suitable options for aligning the back-sidepattern to the front-side features include placing alignment features onthe wafer's back side 311 using a front-to-back aligner or by directlyaligning to the front-side features using a back-side aligner.Regardless of any alignment process, the resulting photoresist pattern350 masks the electronics regions 340 and exposes the photonics region322 for further processing as shown in FIG. 3A.

In some cases, the fabricated electronics, including any exposed metalpads (e.g., on the front side of the CMOS wafer 300), may be protectedwith a photoresist or other layer during post-processing. Thisphotoresist may be removed after post-processing to expose the metalpads for packaging, etc.

Once any desired masks (e.g., mask 350) are in place, the siliconsubstrate 310 is selectively etched to define a recess that from theback side 311 to the front side 313 of the silicon substrate 310. (Anydielectric layers on the back side 311 may be removed using anon-selective etch.) There are many suitable etch strategies, includingselective vapor phase etching, selective wet etching, selective dryetching (e.g., deep reactive ion etching (DRIE)), multi-step etching,and mechanical polishing combined with selective etching.

FIG. 3B shows a recess 371 formed in the die 300 of FIG. 3A usingselective vapor phase etching. An extremely high etch rate selectivityis achievable using the vapor phase etchant XeF₂. Starting from theexposed back side 311, the XeF₂ etches through the entire thickness ofthe silicon substrate 310 and stops at the front-end dielectric layer320, with minimal etch damage to any in-foundry designed shallow trenchisolation features formed in the dielectric layer 320. One benefit of anXeF₂-like etch's extremely high selectivity is that the thehigh-threshold voltage gate oxide may protect the polycrystallinesilicon transistor-gate layer used in the transistors in the electronicsregions 340, even for oxide layers with thicknesses below 10 nm.Similarly, the dielectric layer 320 may protect polycrystalline siliconused as an alternate photonic device layer. However, the etching'sisotropic nature may cause poor front-side to back-side registration andresult in larger “keep-out” regions 324 between the electronics regions340 and the photonics region(s) 320.

FIG. 3C shows a recess 372 formed in the die 300 of FIG. 3A usingselective wet etching. As understood by those of skill in the art, anNaOH-based wet etch stops on the buried oxide layer of a SOI wafer afteretching through the full thickness of the silicon handle. Similarly,NaOH-based wet etching can be used to expose trenches and other patternsin the dielectric layer 220 with a minimum of pattern degradation.Although anistropic etching is possible, common etch angles may be near50 degrees, which is comparable to an isotropic etch.

FIG. 3D shows a recess 373 formed in the die 300 of FIG. 3A usingselective dry etching. For instance, deep reactive ion etching (DRIE)enables modest selectivity between silicon and silicon dioxide (e.g., aselectivity of approximately 10:1). In certain cases, DRIE yields arecess 373 with a relatively high aspect ratio, e.g., as shown in FIG.3D. But because DRIE may exhibit lower selectivity than selective vaperphase etching or selective wet etching, care should be taken to preventselective dry etching from degrading the trenches for waveguideformation in the dielectric layer 320.

FIG. 3E shows a recess 374 formed in the die 300 of FIG. 3A usingmulti-step etching. Since DRIE and chemical (e.g., wet or vapor-phase)etching approaches offer different advantages, they can be combined in amulti-step etch. In some cases, multi-step etching can result in highetch aspect ratios for improved front-side to back-side registration anda small separation between the electronic and photonic regions. In thecase shown in FIG. 3E, DRIE is used to etch away most of the siliconsubstrate 310 to yield a high aspect ratio. The remaining portion of thesilicon substrate 310 is removed with a high selectivity chemical etchto reduce possible front-side pattern degradation that might otherwisebecause caused by using less selective DRIE. And because the chemicaletch is relatively brief, it is less likely to cause alignmentdegradation due to its relatively low etch aspect ratio.

Depositing Dielectric Materials to Form Waveguides

As explained above, etching the back side of the silicon substrateexposes the front-side patterns (trenches) formed during in-foundryprocessing for waveguide definition while leaving the wafer's electronicregions protected by the original silicon substrate. Once the patternshave been exposed, they can be filled or covered with the dielectricmaterials that form the waveguide core and optional lower cladding asillustrated in FIGS. 4A-4H. As readily understood by those of skill inthe art, the core dielectric layer can be chosen to achieve desiredperformance (e.g., a given desired index contrast, transmissionwavelength range, dispersion characteristics, etc.).

FIG. 4A shows the cross section of a patterned template region 400suitable for integrated waveguide formation process simulations. (Theviews in FIGS. 4A-4H are rotated 180 degrees from the views of FIGS.1-3.) The back side of the silicon substrate (not shown) has been etchedto form expose the front-side patterns (trenches) 472 a, 472 b, and 472c (collectively, trenches 472) formed during in-foundry processing forwaveguide definition while leaving the wafer's electronic regionsprotected by the original silicon substrate. The trenches are 300 nmdeep and have widths from left to right of 0.25 μm (trench 484 a), 0.50μm (trench 484 b), and 1.00 μm (trench 484 c). The trenches are definedby respective shallow-trench isolation features 422 a-422 d(collectively, features 422) in the post-waveguide lower cladding oxide,which may form part of a CMOS backend dielectric stackup 420.

FIG. 4B shows the CMOS die 400 after deposition of a uniform layer ofwaveguide core material 480 on the exposed portions of the dielectriclayers 420 and the shallow-trench isolation features 422. In this case,the deposited waveguide core material 480, which may include amorphoussilicon, silicon nitride, silicon-rich silicon nitride, or aluminumoxide, forms core and cladding layers on the in-process front-sidepatterns with no further processing. The waveguide modes are supportedby the local concentration increase of the high-index core layer formedby the isotropic deposition on the patterned sidewall. If desired, anadditional dielectric layer 490 (with a refractive index lower than thatof the waveguide core material 480) can be deposited over the waveguidecore material 480 as a cladding.

More specifically, the waveguide core material 480 deposited in theleft-hand trench 472 a (FIG. 4A), which has a width that is less thantwice the thickness of the deposited waveguide core material 480, formsa waveguide 482 a similar to the rib waveguides formed on SOIsubstrates. The waveguide core material 480 deposited in the centraltrench 472 b (FIG. 4A), which has a width that is greater than twice thethickness of the deposited waveguide core material 480 and less than thesum of twice the deposited layer thickness and the wavelength of theguided mode(s), forms a waveguide 482 b that behaves like aradio-frequency slot waveguide. But the right-hand trench 472 c (FIG.4A) is wider than the sum of twice the deposited layer thickness and thewavelength of the guided mode(s) and therefore may not be able toconfine an optical wave.

If desired, the waveguide core material 480 can be anisotropicallyetched prior to the deposition of the lower-cladding dielectric layer490 as shown in FIGS. 4C and 4D. For example, FIG. 4C shows that partialetching may leave the core of the left-hand waveguide 482 a intact, butnot the central waveguide 482 b or the right-hand waveguide 482 c. Fulletching, as shown in FIG. 4D, leaves intact only the core of theleft-hand waveguide 482 a and splits the other waveguides 482 b and 482c into separate pieces, each of which may guide one or more distinctoptical modes. In certain cases, full etching may be used to createseparate waveguide cores that are too close together to be defined byseparate trenches or narrower than the resolution limit of thein-foundry CMOS process. In addition, etching the waveguide corematerial 480 may roughen the dielectric layer surface and result inhigher integrated mode loss. Nevertheless, removing excess waveguidecore material increases the left-hand waveguide's effective lateralindex contrast, which can increase lateral confinement.

FIGS. 4E and 4F illustrate formation of integrated optical waveguides onthe CMOS wafer 400 of FIG. 4A through deposition, planarization, andetching of waveguide core material 480. Planarization yields a surfacethat is suitable for further processing and that does not necessarilyreflect the topology of the front-end waveguide pattern. One way toproduce a planar surface is to over-deposit the waveguide core layer andthen polish, lap, or etch the waveguide core layer to the desiredthickness. As shown in FIG. 4E, isotropic deposition of a relativelythick (e.g., 1.5 μm thick) layer of waveguide core material 480mitigates the effects of the front-end topology (e.g., the STI features)on the waveguide core material's upper surface—the thicker layer has asmoother upper surface than a thinner layer. Etching away the extrawaveguide core material 480 and depositing a cladding layer 490 yieldsthe waveguides 482 shown in FIG. 4F. Depositing the thicker layer ofwaveguide core material 480 results in a right-hand waveguide core 482 cthat may behave like a slab waveguide.

FIGS. 4G and 4H illustrate waveguide deposition and planarization on theCMOS wafer 400 of FIG. 4A using a sacrificial layer 492 to performplanarization prior to waveguide core etch-back. In this case, thewaveguide core material 480 is deposited as a layer that is thicker thanthe final waveguide cross-section, but not necessarily thick enough tobe planarized itself (e.g., about 400-500 nm thick). Next, a relativelythick sacrificial layer 492 (e.g., about 1 μm thick) of material thatcan be etched at a rate similar to the etch rate of the waveguide corematerial 480 is deposited and planarized to form a top surface 494 whoseshape and roughness are independent of the front-end pattern topology.Planarization of the sacrificial layer can be accomplished by anysuitable technique, including but not limited to spin coating, reflow,repeated deposition and etch, and embossing. The planarized sacrificiallayer 492 and waveguide material 480 are then etched back to formuniform thickness waveguide cores 484 for any pattern width as shown inFIG. 4H.

Simulated Waveguide Performance

FIGS. 5A and 5B show simulated transverse electric (TE) and transversemagnetic (TM) field optical mode profiles for operating wavelengths of600 nm and 850 nm, respectively, for a waveguide with a stoichiometricsilicon nitride core The stoichiometric silicon nitride core has arefractive index of approximately 2.0 and is deposited in a trench whosewidth is about 300 nm and whose depth is about 350 nm. The simulatedtrench can be formed in a 350 nm shallow trench isolation (STI) layerusing commercially available 90 nm bulk CMOS technology. (In thesimulation shown in FIGS. 5A and 5B, the silicon nitride also forms arelatively uniform layer with a thickness of about 200 nm that extendsover the STI layer. If desired, this layer of silicon nitride can beremoved and replaced with a layer of silicon dioxide.)

In operation, the CMOS-based structure shown in FIGS. 5A and 5B supportsboth TE and TM “rib” waveguide modes that propagate via the siliconnitride in the trench and TE and TM “slab” waveguide modes thatpropagate via the relatively uniform layer of silicon nitride thatextends over the STI layer. Strictly speaking, the rib waveguide modesmay be considered as quasi-TE/quasi-TM modes since the rib waveguide hasa trapezoidal cross-section. Conversely, the slab waveguide modes may(in principle) be TE/TM modes. As a result, the quasi-TE rib waveguidemode may couple to the TE slab waveguide mode and possibly the TM slabwaveguide mode as well.

For instance, at a wavelength of about 600 nm, the effective indices forthe simulated quasi-TE and quasi-TM rib waveguide modes are 1.823 and1.827, whereas the minimum effective index for the slab waveguide modesis about 1.746. At wavelength of 850 nm, these effective indices areabout 1.695, 1.693, and 1.651, respectively.

The effective index of the TE slab waveguide mode is higher than theeffective index of the TM slab waveguide mode, so the effective indexcontrast for the quasi-TM rib mode is larger; as a result, the quasi-TMrib waveguide mode may be less susceptible to loss caused by bending orroughness. A full consideration of intermodal coupling between the modesof the rib and those of the slabs for different sources of coupling mayprovide more information about differences in propagation loss.

Waveguide and Grating Devices Fabricated via CMOS Techniques

Waveguides and gratings fabricated via CMOS techniques described abovecan find applications in a wide range of areas, including communicationsand biosensors. For instance, a vertical-coupling grating can be used tocouple light from an optical fiber into or out of a CMOS waveguide whoseoptical axis is parallel to a silicon substrate. One- andtwo-dimensional periodic structures (e.g., gratings or photoniccrystals) can also be used to diffract light within a planeparallel thesilicon substrate, possibly for wavelength-division multiplexing, forrouting optical signals throughout a chip, etc. The periodicities andmaterials of these structures may be selected based on the desiredoperating wavelengths, power coupling ratios, diffraction angles, etc.

FIG. 6A shows a vertical-coupling component 610 that can couple lightinto and/or out of a CMOS device or a system (not shown). The component610 includes a grating structure 611, a tapered region 612, and asmall-core waveguide 613, all which can be fabricated using the CMOStechniques disclosed herein. The grating structure 611 can receive lightfrom an out-of-plane fiber (not shown) and couple the light into thetapered region 612, which further couples the light to the waveguide613. The waveguide 613 may be coupled to a laser or other source,detector, or other waveguide or coupler deposited on the CMOS structure.The tapered region 612 can terminate in a spherical end and achieve abetter numerical aperture than a cleaved and polished fiber end,improving coupling efficiency into the small-core waveguide 613.

The component 610 can be used in a resonator-based sensor 620 as shownin FIG. 6B. The sensor 620 includes a pair of grating coupler 621 a and621 b (collectively referred to as 621), a pair of waveguides 622 a and622 b (collectively referred to as waveguides 622), and a ring resonator623, all which can be fabricated using the CMOS techniques disclosedherein. One example of the ring resonator can be a glass microsphere(e.g., with a 100 microns diameter) that can be integrated into the CMOSdevice and confines light by total internal reflection. In anotherexample, the resonator can be placed on top of the waveguide structure.

In operation, the ring resonator 623 is immersed in or exposed to asample that is to be analyzed. For example, a drop of the sample may beplaced over the ring resonator 623. Light from a tunable laser or othersource is coupled into the sensor 620 via the first grating structure621 a and propagates along the waveguide 622 b towards the ringresonator 623. At least some of the light is evanescently coupled intothe ring resonator 623 and resonates within the ring resonator 623 if aninteger number of wavelengths fit on the closed circular optical path.The non-resonant light propagates along the second waveguide 622 btowards the second grating structure 621 b, which couples thetransmitted light to an out-of-plane detector (not shown).

The resonance wavelength appears as a sharp Lorentzian-shaped spectralresponse in the sensor's transmission spectrum, which can be acquiredwith a tunable laser source (not shown) coupled to the ring resonator623 via the optical waveguides 622. The sensor's transmission spectrumcan be recorded by sweeping the laser wavelength: as the wavelength ofthe laser source matches the resonance wavelength of the microsphere,light couples from the optical waveguide to the resonator and a drop ofintensity is recorded. The resonance wavelength may change depending onchanges in the resonator's optical path length, which can occur, forexample, upon binding of biomolecules to the micro-resonator surface.When a biomolecule such as bovine serum albumin protein (BSA) attachesto the equator of the resonator 623, the protein can be polarized withinthe evanescent field effectively pulling part of the field distributionto the outside of the resonator 623 and thereby slightly increasing theoverall optical path length. The binding event can thus be detected fromthe resulting red-shift of the resonance wavelength.

FIG. 6C shows a directional coupler 603 utilizing the waveguidesfabricated according to methods described herein. The directionalcoupler 630 includes a plurality of ports 631 a-631 d (collectivelyreferred to as ports 631) to couple light into and out of the pair ofwaveguides 632 a and 632 b (collectively referred to as waveguides 632).In operation, light propagating in the first waveguide 632 aevanescently couples into the second waveguide 632 b (and vice versa).As understood in the art, the amount of power transferred between thewaveguides 632 depends on the optical path length of the couplingregion, the distance between the waveguides 632, and the wavelength(s)of the propagating beam(s).

The directional coupler 630 can be used to construct aninterferometer-based sensor 640 shown in FIG. 6D. The sensor 640includes a plurality of grating couplers 641 a-641 d (collectivelyreferred to as grating couplers 641), a pair of directional couplers 642a and 642 b (collectively referred to as directional couplers 642), areference arm 643, and a sensing arm 644. In operation, interactionbetween a sample and an optical signal propagating in a sensor canproduce a change of optical mode effective index and accordingly shiftthe phase of the optical signal. To convert this phase shift into anamplitude change, interferometer architectures can be employed.

One exemplary interferometer can be a Mach-Zehnder interferometer asshown in FIG. 6D. In this approach, an input optical signal is coupledinto the first directional coupler 642 a via the first grating coupler641 a or the second grating coupler 641 b. The first directional coupler642 a couples a first portion of the input optical signal into thereference arm 643 and a second portion of the input optical signal intothe sensing arm 644. The component propagating in the sensing arm 644interacts evanescently with the sample, producing a sample-dependentphase shift. After the propagation through these two arms, the first andsecond portions of the input optical signal are combined in the seconddirectional coupler 642 b to produce outputs at the second pair ofgrating couplers 641 c and 641 d whose intensities depend on thesample-dependent phase shift.

FIG. 6E shows a scanning electron micrograph of the trench for a samplegrating device. The etched trench has a smooth surface with a RMSsurface roughness of about 2.21 nm. The depth of the trench is on theorder of 200 nm to 400 nm. The grating device after etching can becleaned using either wet process or dry process to remove possibledebris. For example, a wet cleaning can be carried out in de-ionziedwater or solvents (e.g., acetone, methanol, or isopropanol), in which anultrasonic wave can be applied to facilitate the cleaning. In anotherexample, a dry cleaning process can use liquid polymers that solidifyafter being applied to surfaces of the sample device. Debris on thesurfaces can adhere to the liquid polymers during solidification of theliquid polymers and can be removed when the solidified liquid polymersare peeled off from the device.

CONCLUSION

While various inventive embodiments have been described and illustratedherein, those of ordinary skill in the art will readily envision avariety of other means and/or structures for performing the functionand/or obtaining the results and/or one or more of the advantagesdescribed herein, and each of such variations and/or modifications isdeemed to be within the scope of the inventive embodiments describedherein. More generally, those skilled in the art will readily appreciatethat all parameters, dimensions, materials, and configurations describedherein are meant to be exemplary and that the actual parameters,dimensions, materials, and/or configurations will depend upon thespecific application or applications for which the inventive teachingsis/are used. Those skilled in the art will recognize, or be able toascertain using no more than routine experimentation, many equivalentsto the specific inventive embodiments described herein. It is,therefore, to be understood that the foregoing embodiments are presentedby way of example only and that, within the scope of the appended claimsand equivalents thereto, inventive embodiments may be practicedotherwise than as specifically described and claimed. Inventiveembodiments of the present disclosure are directed to each individualfeature, system, article, material, kit, and/or method described herein.In addition, any combination of two or more such features, systems,articles, materials, kits, and/or methods, if such features, systems,articles, materials, kits, and/or methods are not mutually inconsistent,is included within the inventive scope of the present disclosure.

The above-described embodiments can be implemented in any of numerousways. For example, the embodiments (e.g., of designing and/or operatingtransparent displays) may be implemented using hardware, software, or acombination thereof. When implemented in software, the software code canbe executed on any suitable processor or collection of processors,whether provided in a single computer or distributed among multiplecomputers.

Further, it should be appreciated that the present displays and methodsof making and operating displays may be used in conjunction with acomputer, which may be embodied in any of a number of forms, such as arack-mounted computer, a desktop computer, a laptop computer, or atablet computer. For instance, the controller 140 shown in FIG. 1A maybe implemented as a computer, smart phone, or other processor-baseddevice. Additionally, a computer may be embedded in a device notgenerally regarded as a computer but with suitable processingcapabilities, including a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), a smartphone or any other suitable portable or fixed electronic device.

Also, a computer may have one or more input and output devices,including one or more displays as disclosed herein. These devices can beused, among other things, to present a user interface. Examples ofoutput devices that can be used to provide a user interface includeprinters or display screens for visual presentation of output andspeakers or other sound generating devices for audible presentation ofoutput. Examples of input devices that can be used for a user interfaceinclude keyboards, and pointing devices, such as mice, touch pads, anddigitizing tablets. As another example, a computer may receive inputinformation through speech recognition or in other audible format.

Such computers may be interconnected by one or more networks in anysuitable form, including a local area network or a wide area network,such as an enterprise network, and intelligent network (IN) or theInternet. Such networks may be based on any suitable technology and mayoperate according to any suitable protocol and may include wirelessnetworks, wired networks or fiber optic networks.

The various methods or processes outlined herein may be coded assoftware that is executable on one or more processors that employ anyone of a variety of operating systems or platforms. Additionally, suchsoftware may be written using any of a number of suitable programminglanguages and/or programming or scripting tools, and also may becompiled as executable machine language code or intermediate code thatis executed on a framework or virtual machine.

In this respect, various inventive concepts may be embodied as acomputer readable storage medium (or multiple computer readable storagemedia) (e.g., a computer memory, one or more floppy discs, compactdiscs, optical discs, magnetic tapes, flash memories, circuitconfigurations in Field Programmable Gate Arrays or other semiconductordevices, or other non-transitory medium or tangible computer storagemedium) encoded with one or more programs that, when executed on one ormore computers or other processors, perform methods that implement thevarious embodiments of the invention discussed above. The computerreadable medium or media can be transportable, such that the program orprograms stored thereon can be loaded onto one or more differentcomputers or other processors to implement various aspects of thepresent invention as discussed above.

The terms “program” or “software” are used herein in a generic sense torefer to any type of computer code or set of computer-executableinstructions that can be employed to program a computer or otherprocessor to implement various aspects of embodiments as discussedabove. Additionally, it should be appreciated that according to oneaspect, one or more computer programs that when executed perform methodsof the present invention need not reside on a single computer orprocessor, but may be distributed in a modular fashion amongst a numberof different computers or processors to implement various aspects of thepresent invention.

Computer-executable instructions may be in many forms, such as programmodules, executed by one or more computers or other devices. Generally,program modules include routines, programs, objects, components, datastructures, etc. that perform particular tasks or implement particularabstract data types. Typically the functionality of the program modulesmay be combined or distributed as desired in various embodiments.

Also, data structures may be stored in computer-readable media in anysuitable form. For simplicity of illustration, data structures may beshown to have fields that are related through location in the datastructure. Such relationships may likewise be achieved by assigningstorage for the fields with locations in a computer-readable medium thatconvey relationship between the fields. However, any suitable mechanismmay be used to establish a relationship between information in fields ofa data structure, including through the use of pointers, tags or othermechanisms that establish relationship between data elements.

Also, various inventive concepts may be embodied as one or more methods,of which an example has been provided. The acts performed as part of themethod may be ordered in any suitable way. Accordingly, embodiments maybe constructed in which acts are performed in an order different thanillustrated, which may include performing some acts simultaneously, eventhough shown as sequential acts in illustrative embodiments.

All definitions, as defined and used herein, should be understood tocontrol over dictionary definitions, definitions in documentsincorporated by reference, and/or ordinary meanings of the definedterms.

A flow diagram is used herein. The use of flow diagrams is not meant tobe limiting with respect to the order of operations performed. Theherein described subject matter sometimes illustrates differentcomponents contained within, or connected with, different othercomponents. It is to be understood that such depicted architectures aremerely exemplary, and that in fact many other architectures can beimplemented which achieve the same functionality. In a conceptual sense,any arrangement of components to achieve the same functionality iseffectively “associated” such that the desired functionality isachieved. Hence, any two components herein combined to achieve aparticular functionality can be seen as “associated with” each othersuch that the desired functionality is achieved, irrespective ofarchitectures or intermedial components. Likewise, any two components soassociated can also be viewed as being “operably connected,” or“operably coupled,” to each other to achieve the desired functionality,and any two components capable of being so associated can also be viewedas being “operably couplable,” to each other to achieve the desiredfunctionality. Specific examples of operably couplable include but arenot limited to physically mateable and/or physically interactingcomponents and/or wirelessly interactable and/or wirelessly interactingcomponents and/or logically interacting and/or logically interactablecomponents.

The indefinite articles “a” and “an,” as used herein in thespecification and in the claims, unless clearly indicated to thecontrary, should be understood to mean “at least one.”

The phrase “and/or,” as used herein in the specification and in theclaims, should be understood to mean “either or both” of the elements soconjoined, i.e., elements that are conjunctively present in some casesand disjunctively present in other cases. Multiple elements listed with“and/or” should be construed in the same fashion, i.e., “one or more” ofthe elements so conjoined. Other elements may optionally be presentother than the elements specifically identified by the “and/or” clause,whether related or unrelated to those elements specifically identified.Thus, as a non-limiting example, a reference to “A and/or B”, when usedin conjunction with open-ended language such as “comprising” can refer,in one embodiment, to A only (optionally including elements other thanB); in another embodiment, to B only (optionally including elementsother than A); in yet another embodiment, to both A and B (optionallyincluding other elements); etc.

As used herein in the specification and in the claims, “or” should beunderstood to have the same meaning as “and/or” as defined above. Forexample, when separating items in a list, “or” or “and/or” shall beinterpreted as being inclusive, i.e., the inclusion of at least one, butalso including more than one, of a number or list of elements, and,optionally, additional unlisted items. Only terms clearly indicated tothe contrary, such as “only one of” or “exactly one of,” or, when usedin the claims, “consisting of,” will refer to the inclusion of exactlyone element of a number or list of elements. In general, the term “or”as used herein shall only be interpreted as indicating exclusivealternatives (i.e. “one or the other but not both”) when preceded byterms of exclusivity, such as “either,” “one of,” “only one of,” or“exactly one of” “Consisting essentially of,” when used in the claims,shall have its ordinary meaning as used in the field of patent law.

As used herein in the specification and in the claims, the phrase “atleast one,” in reference to a list of one or more elements, should beunderstood to mean at least one element selected from any one or more ofthe elements in the list of elements, but not necessarily including atleast one of each and every element specifically listed within the listof elements and not excluding any combinations of elements in the listof elements. This definition also allows that elements may optionally bepresent other than the elements specifically identified within the listof elements to which the phrase “at least one” refers, whether relatedor unrelated to those elements specifically identified. Thus, as anon-limiting example, “at least one of A and B” (or, equivalently, “atleast one of A or B,” or, equivalently “at least one of A and/or B”) canrefer, in one embodiment, to at least one, optionally including morethan one, A, with no B present (and optionally including elements otherthan B); in another embodiment, to at least one, optionally includingmore than one, B, with no A present (and optionally including elementsother than A); in yet another embodiment, to at least one, optionallyincluding more than one, A, and at least one, optionally including morethan one, B (and optionally including other elements); etc.

In the claims, as well as in the specification above, all transitionalphrases such as “comprising,” “including,” “carrying,” “having,”“containing,” “involving,” “holding,” “composed of,” and the like are tobe understood to be open-ended, i.e., to mean including but not limitedto. Only the transitional phrases “consisting of” and “consistingessentially of” shall be closed or semi-closed transitional phrases,respectively, as set forth in the United States Patent Office Manual ofPatent Examining Procedures, Section 2111.03.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method of making at least one optical waveguidein a silicon substrate having a front side, a back side, and at leastone ridge extending from the front side of the silicon substrate and adielectric layer of first dielectric material deposited on the frontside of the silicon substrate over the at least one ridge, the firstdielectric material having a first refractive index, the methodcomprising: (A) etching a portion of the back side of the siliconsubstrate so as to form at least one trench in the dielectric layer viaremoval of the at least one ridge extending from the front side of thesilicon substrate; and (B) depositing a waveguide core material, havinga second refractive index greater than the first refractive index, intothe at least one trench so as to form a core of the at least one opticalwaveguide.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein: the silicon substratecomprises a first electronic device and a second electronic deviceformed in the silicon substrate, and (A) comprises removing silicondisposed between the first electronic device and the second electronicdevice so as to form the at least one trench in the dielectric layer. 3.The method of claim 2, wherein (A) further comprises defining a path forthe optical waveguide between the first electronic device and the secondelectronic device.
 4. The method of claim 3, wherein: the dielectriclayer extends at least partially between the first electronic device andthe second electronic device, and (A) further comprises etching the atleast one trench to extend at least partially into a plane containingthe first electronic device and the second electronic device.
 5. Themethod of claim 2, wherein at least one of the first electronic deviceand the second electronic device comprises at least one of a transistor,a photodetector, a modulator, and a light source.
 6. The method of claim1, wherein (A) comprises at least one of vapor phase etching, wetetching, deep reactive ion etching, and multi-step etching.
 7. Themethod of claim 1, wherein (A) comprises etching the at least one trenchto a width of less than or equal to about 130 nm.
 8. The method of claim7, wherein (A) comprises etching the width of the at least one trench toa precision of less than or equal to about 1 nm.
 9. The method of claim1, wherein: (A) comprises exposing a portion of the dielectric layer,through the silicon substrate, adjacent to the at least one trench; and(B) comprises depositing a uniform layer of the waveguide core materialover at least a portion of the dielectric layer adjacent to the at leastone trench.
 10. The method of claim 1, wherein (B) comprises depositingat least one of polymer, amorphous silicon, silicon nitride,silicon-rich silicon nitride, aluminum nitride, aluminum oxide, titaniumoxide, tantalum oxide, zinc oxide, and amorphous silicon germanium alloyin the at least one trench.
 11. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising, before (B): depositing a second dielectric material, withinthe dielectric layer beneath the at least one trench or within the atleast one trench, to form a cladding layer of the at least onewaveguide.
 12. The method of claim 1, wherein the waveguide corematerial is at least partially transparent at at least one wavelength ina range from about 400 nm to about 2000 nm.
 13. The method of claim 1,further comprising: (C) etching away at least a portion of the waveguidecore material; and (D) depositing a cladding layer on the waveguide corematerial etched in (C).
 14. The method of claim 1, further comprising:forming a heater, in thermal communication with the core of the opticalwaveguide, to heat the optical waveguide so as to vary the secondrefractive index.